In this article, CoinEx provides a detailed comparison of decentralized derivatives platforms (dydx, GMX, ZKX), in terms of project, team, future prospects and others.

dYdX: The #1 player in the decentralized products platform

1. Project overview

Currently, it is considered dYdX platform platform It is the absolute leader in the decentralized products platform category. The platform, founded in 2017, offers forward contracts, lending and borrowing at 25x leverage. Built on the Ethereum network, dYdX uses Layer 2 solutions to help users trade cryptocurrencies efficiently with low gas fees.

2. Team

dYdX is led by an elite team with solid professional experience, decent academic background and experienced developers.

Antonio Giuliano, founder of dYdX, is a former engineer at Coinbase. After graduating with a BA in Computer Science from Princeton University in 2015, Antonio started working as a software engineer at Coinbase. A year later, he joined Uber and continued working as a software engineer. In 2017, Antonio created VPoint, a decentralized networks research unit, and in August 2017, he founded DVDX. Based on his biography, we can say that Antonio is a technical expert with strong technical ability.

Other key members of the team:

Brendan Chu, software engineer and engineer, joined dYdX in early 2018. He and Antonio Giuliano were classmates at Princeton School. In 2015, Brendan graduated from Princeton University with a BA in Computer Science. He is a former engineer at Google.
Product designer Achal Srinivasan joined the team in 2020. He graduated from Rice University in 2020 with a degree in Computer Science and is working at Coinbase.
Vijay Shetty, Director of Business Development, graduated from Princeton University with a degree in Economics and joined dYdX in 2020. He worked as an analyst and investment advisor at Blackstone Investments. Later in his career, he focused on business development / corporate collaboration.

3. Fundraising

According to public information, dYdX has held at least four fundraising rounds.

One of the best decentralized derivatives platforms, dYdX has received investment from institutional investors, such as Paradigm, Polychain Capital, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and other big name firms in the industry, as well as Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, a large individual investor. In particular, a16z and Polychain Capital participated in the first three rounds of fundraising, which indicates that these large investors are very confident in the project team and future prospects. According to public information, liquidity providers such as Wintermute and QCP Capital have provided funding to DVDX to build a more comprehensive partnership with the project.

4. Technology

Initially, dYdX adopted StarkWare as a second layer solution. It uses prices provided by Chainlink’s Oracle Network for operations such as calculating cash rates and forcing liquidation rates. Products offered by DVDX include margin trading, spot trading and lending. However, dYdX has now left the StareWare ecosystem and created its own new public chain.

5. Will dYdX find new success after leaving StareWare?

The dYdX chain will be built using the Cosmos SDK compatible protocol and TenderMint proof-of-stake, meaning it will be open to the Cosmos ecosystem, an interconnected system of application blockchains. The upgrade represents the fourth iteration of the dYdX (V4). In dYdX V4, each validator runs an in-memory command book that is never committed to consensus (ie off-chain). The V4 project is expected to be completed by the end of 2022.

Once dYdX becomes an independent network, dYdX tokens may change.

To be more specific:

1. dYdX can become a public chain token (currency), and transactions on the dYdX chain are consumed.
2. Staking: Like other PoS chains, dYdX chain nodes also need to lock a large amount of dYdX.
3. The dYdX chain links dYdX to protocol revenue.

Currently, dYdX has a valuation of about $1.6 billion, with a total market capitalization of about $1.6 billion. Additionally, the average unit price of dYdX purchased by institutional investors is approximately $0.3. We believe there is still plenty of room for price growth (without financial advice).

2. GMX

1. Project overview

GMX is the largest decentralized derivatives platform on Arbitrum. It is a Decentralized Derivatives Platform (DEX) that supports spot and perpetual contracts and its core business is focused on current derivatives trading. Formerly known as Gambit, it is an on-chain BSC project that has been migrated to Orbitrum and supports the Avalanche (AVAX) series. Unlike dYdX, GMX does not use an order book or AMM model. Instead, it uses the GLP liquidity model. The “GLP Liquidity Model” means that when users provide liquidity to GMX, instead of providing two tokens with a 1:1 ratio such as ETH/USDT, they are directly purchasing and subscribing to the GMX Liquidity Token issued by GMX. By sharing the protocol, and GLP, they are sharing in the making of the GMX market.

GLP represents a basket of tokens:

2. Team

GMX’s founder goes by the name X on Twitter. With over 6000 followers on Twitter, X is a serial entrepreneur and creator of XVIX, a leveraged token, and Gambit. Other information about the founder is still unknown.

3. Technology

GMX adopts the same global credit framework as SNX, but does not use worthless coins as collateral like its counterpart, GLP, SNX. Instead, an index asset made up of equal assets of different ratios (i.e. GLP) is used as collateral. Since GLP holders provide liquidity for leveraged trading, they make profits when leveraged traders incur losses and vice versa. Meanwhile, GLP (Index’s Liquidity Token) is separated from GMX Token for governance.

4. Fundraising

According to public information, Gambit completed a $1.5 million fundraising round in June 2022 with participation from institutional investors including Superlayer Labs. Based on fundraising status, GMX is a weaker decentralized derivatives platform compared to dYdX in terms of investor background. Despite this, GMX recorded impressive price growth. Although the market is still bearish, GMX’s market capitalization is still around $600 million, while TVL Protocol is around $50 billion. In this regard, it seems that GMX may surpass dYdX. Its strong price is mainly due to enabling tokens, which will boost the GMX project governance token, thus attracting more traders and liquidity providers to its platform. As far as technologies are concerned, GMX has done a better job than dYdX.

3. ZKX-StarkNet: One of the emerging non-tokenized derivatives platforms in the Starkware ecosystem

1. Summary of the project

ZKX is an unofficial protocol for Starknet-based products, a decentralized order book and a unique way to offer complex financial instruments as swaps. The protocol is powered by The DAO and provides a great trading experience with likeable leaderboards and unique liquid governance. Since dYdX left StarkWare, ZKX has become one of the largest decentralized products platforms in the ecosystem, with the project receiving official investment and support from StareWare. Plus, their tokens make more sense than dYdX tokens. In particular, its token can be primarily used for: administration, betting, trading fee discount, protocol revenue sharing, premium functionality (e.g. high leverage) etc.

2. Team

ZKX has a 30-member team, including executives from Flipkart, Paytm and Byjus, with decades of experience in business creation, scaling strategies, startups and financial products. However, this team pales in comparison to the dYdX team.

3. Technology

The technical structure of ZKX is as follows:

A node network consists of two basic parts: Decentralized Limit Order Book (DLOB) and Data Provider Service (DPS). DPS gives ZKX flexibility in terms of the data it can get, the type of assets it can buy and the prices it can get. This adds scalability to the system because all adjustments in the order book occur as fast as possible up the chain. However, all key validations are still in StarkNet’s L2, and the order book is always validated under ZK-rollups and ZK-proofs. This means you can benefit from fast implementation and flexibility while enjoying renowned security and privacy.

4. Fundraising

ZKX is backed by strong institutional investors including StarkWare, Alameda Research, Huobi, Amber Group, and Crypto.com. It is noteworthy that VIA BTC Capital also participated in the expansion round of the project. Plus, with official StarkWare support, ZKX has solid support.

Comparison of previous decentralized products platforms

As can be seen from the image above, ZKX offers many unique features. Meanwhile, after dYdX left StarkWare, ZKX was given more opportunities, including rich ecosystem functionality, more valuable token functionality, and user sharing capabilities enabled by the combination of StarkWare and StarkNet.

At the same time, the project is central to several sectors, including Layer2-Starkware, ZK-Rollups and trading of high-end decentralized products. This means it can thrive as a successful project in the Starkware ecosystem. Despite fierce competition in the market, ZKX continues to improve its trading experiences and user interface. By offering comprehensive security protection and a comprehensive merchant incentive model, ZKX can hold its own in the future decentralized products platform sector.

---

Read more: